BFP: What do you do?
MS: We run and manage high-performer leadership programmes for large companies. Recently we’ve been working in the ‘intrapreneurship’ space and were a lead partner on the Intrapreneur Lab at the Said Business School along with Accenture, Business Fights Poverty & the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship.
BFP: What is the best part about your job?
MS: The work we’re doing now with intrapreneurs is exciting. Working alongside Accenture and Business Fights Poverty to help individuals from Barclays, GSK & Novartis develop and implement ‘shared-value’ business projects requires us all to think and work very differently. And I’m a firm believer that leadership qualities are developed through facing and working through challenges just like this.
BFP: What have been your greatest challenges?
MS: I think our greatest challenges are yet to come but to date, the early days – when we were working to convince some of our largest clients and stakeholders that intrapreneurship was a huge opportunity for innovation and leadership – brought with them some uncertainty, which is always a little tough to handle.
BFP: How have you overcome these challenges? What is the secret of your success?
MS: More than self-belief was our belief in the idea – that supporting intrapreneurs within large companies could be a source of genuine shared-value creation and develop individual leadership potential. This was rock solid. I firmly believed (and continue to believe) that this is an idea whose time has come: and Leadership Laboratories was the right vehicle for it.
BFP: If someone wants to do what you do, where should they start?
MS: Give us a call – we’re growing!
BFP: Finally; what do you hope to get out of being part of the BFP community?
MS: For our first Intrapreneur Lab, we are working with a select group of individuals – many of whom are at VP or Associate Director level – from some the UK’s largest companies who are working on genuinely innovative shared-value projects. These companies told us that, through publicising this Lab, they saw that there are probably 100’s of such intrapreneurial projects hidden within their organisations.
This indicates that within the FTSE 100 alone, there could be 10,000 intrapreneurs with ideas that could make a difference and make a profit. Today’s VP’s and Associate Directors will be tomorrow’s Managing and Executive Directors – and we’re excited to be working with BFP to build this community of future leaders who will be instrumental in shaping the corporate landscape over the next 5-10 years.
Editor’s Note:
Thank you to Milan Samani for taking the time to do this interview.
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